Fort Worth, TX-based Quicksilver Resources Inc. has entered into a confidentiality agreement with a group of investors that includes Quicksilver CEO Glenn Darden, Chairman Thomas Darden and the Darden family-controlled Quicksilver Energy LP. The group may seek to take Quicksilver private.

Earlier this month Quicksilver received a letter from the group announcing its intentions. Shares in Quicksilver rallied on the news (see Shale Daily, Oct. 19).

Quicksilver Resources focuses on unconventional gas reserves. The company’s primary growth area is the Barnett Shale formation in the Fort Worth Basin in North Texas. Proved reserves there have grown from 2 Bcfe at year-end 2003 to 2.1 Tcfe as of year-end 2009, according to the company. “We currently have approximately 163,000 net acres in our core development area of this play, and reported average production of approximately 279 MMcfe/d during the second quarter of 2010,” Quicksilver said. “In the Fort Worth Basin, we have three rigs operating and expect to drill approximately 100 gross wells and complete approximately 125 gross wells during 2010.”

The company said it will disclose to the investor group certain non public information regarding the company and its operations. The investor group has agreed that for the next six months it will not acquire any additional equity interest in Quicksilver Resources without the prior approval of the Quicksilver board’s transaction committee.

The committee told the group that it does not intend to waive certain restrictions of the Quicksilver shareholder rights plan, as had been requested by the investor group, until it receives and evaluates a proposal from the group. The transaction committee said it believes that the confidentiality agreement will permit the investor group to submit a proposal while protecting the interests of other shareholders of the company.